Sunday, November 16, 2008

Glenanne moved into back the top three thanks to a strong second half performance after YM had taken an early lead through Jacob Webber. The Glens levelled by half-time and then pulled clear with three second half goals to stay within a couple of points of new leaders Three Rock.

Pembroke notched up the biggest win of the season with a comprehensive hammering of the Cats at Serpentine Avenue. Alan Sothern leads the way in the goal-scoring stakes thanks to his four on the day while Kilkenny will hope they can turn their form around as they face a crunch match against UCD next Saturday. 30 goals have already been conceded this term in seven games, a worrying sign.

Monkstown 2 (Gareth Watkins, Alan Lewis) Corinthian 1 (John McInroy)

The Town have gained a valuable buffer of five points in the race for an IHL place as they beat sixth-placed Corinthian by the odd goal in three. Watkins opened the scoring after creating space himself to fire in a reverse before Alan Lewis made it 2-0 with a deflection. John McInroy levelled with a slightly deflected effort with about 10 minutes remaining but they could not create enough chances to pick up a point.

The top of the table now has a lot more familiar look as Three Rock Rovers won a decent game in ALSAA. Goals from Peter Blakeney with a reverse to open the scoring and Patrick Shanahan sealed the win to leap-frog Fingal who now occupy a three-way tie for second place with Glenanne and Pembroke but lie fourth on goal-difference.

Looking forward from this weekend, how do teams in the irish hockey league propose to play matches on their home pitches when they do not have the required 5 metre ring outside of the D that all attacking free hits must be taken outside of. A massive oversight on the part of the IHA in my opinion. Stephen maybe you could do some investigative reporting on this matter? As I believe teams may have a huge case here to have matches refixed to new locations.

You may think you it will not case a huge amount of trouble but I do recall TRR had a goal against them disallowed due to an infringement on the 5 metre ring in the EHL. An issue that some teams might deem quite serious if it was to arise in an IHL fixture.